ARCADE White Paper

ARCADE in one page

ARCADE is a network of computers, run by ordinary people, that host games, apps, chat and trading you can open in any web browser. No company owns it, and your account doesn't belong to any one of those computers. Your name, messages, coins and collectibles are written on public blockchains, so you can walk into any arcade and find them there.

For players, it's a place to play, post, message friends, collect and trade, without handing your coins to anyone. You sign up with a name and a password. Your wallet is made and locked on your own device.

For operators, it's a program you run on a spare computer. It sits beside the coin software, links itself to other arcades, and lets you decide what your arcade offers, what it charges and who it serves.

For app makers, it's a place to publish a web app once and have it show up in every arcade's App Store.

The name stands for Adaptive Reciprocating Chain-linked Auxiliary Distributed Ecosystem: it adapts to what each computer can run, arcades help each other in return, everything is tied to blockchains, each arcade can lean on the others, and no single one is in charge.

The software appears under three names, DogecoinArcade, PepecoinArcade and LitecoinArcade. They differ only in colours and home coin, and they all talk to each other.

Why ARCADE exists

ARCADE exists so that using a blockchain app doesn't mean trusting the company that runs it.

Today, most crypto games, wallets and marketplaces run on someone else's server. That server usually keeps your account, often your keys, and sometimes your coins. If it's hacked, sold or switched off, you can lose access to all of it. Small coin communities have lived through this: marketplaces that vanished, and collections drained from a hosted service.

Smaller coins have a second problem. They have few explorers, wallets or marketplaces, because running the software for them takes a lot of disk space and know-how. One person can't easily do it alone.

ARCADE answers both:

• Your keys stay yours. Your wallet is locked on your device, and trades happen in a single transaction both people sign, so nobody holds your coins in between. The few ways of trading that do ask you to trust someone are clearly marked.
• Communities share the load. One operator can run a coin's full software and lend it to many other arcades. Each arcade runs what it can and borrows the rest.
• Nothing important lives on one server. Your name and history are on public chains. If your arcade closes, you sign in at another one with the same name and password.

How it works, in plain words

ARCADE has four parts: your browser, the arcades, the mesh that links them, and the public blockchains underneath.

• Your browser holds your wallet, locked with your password. Every action you take, from a post to a trade, is signed there before it leaves your device.
• An arcade is a computer that serves the games and apps, keeps track of what's on each chain, and passes your signed actions on to the chains. Its operator chooses which coins it runs.
• The mesh links arcades together. Arcades find each other, lend each other coins they run, share their order books, and carry messages between players.
• The blockchains keep everything that matters: your @name, messages, posts, coins and collectibles. Pepecoin's test network carries the everyday social things, because using it costs next to nothing. Coins and collectibles live on their own chains.

Because nothing important is kept only on one arcade, any arcade can serve you. Sign in somewhere else with the same name and password and your things are there.

What you can do as a player

All you need is a web browser. There's nothing to download and no company account, and an arcade with a free seat will take you in.

Names, messages and posts run on Pepecoin's test network, where coins cost nothing to get. Many arcades give a new account a starter amount, so you can begin straight away.

Exchanging

Most trades on ARCADE are not custodial: nobody holds your coins while the trade happens. They settle in a single transaction both people sign, or in a pair of time-locked contracts that either pay both sides or give both their coins back. A few ways of trading do ask you to trust someone, and they are listed separately below.

What you can exchange

• Coins: Pepecoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin and DigiByte, with each other.
• Tokens: the arcade's own tokens on Pepecoin, and DRC-20 tokens on Dogecoin.
• Collectibles: arcade NFTs, collection pieces, and inscriptions on every supported chain (Doginals, Pepinals, Bellinals, Luckinals, DigiByte and Litecoin ordinals).

Bellscoin can't be swapped for other coins yet, and Luckycoin swaps aren't open yet. Their collectibles can still be listed and bought.

Ways that need no trust

Ways that ask you to trust someone

Good to know

• One shared book. Swap orders from every arcade show in one book, refreshed every 1.5 seconds. An order you list from an open browser tab costs nothing and shows only while the tab is open.
• Nothing is matched for you. Your arcade only fills orders that already meet your price.
• Big trades wait. Small coin swaps act on payments that aren't confirmed yet, which is fast but could be undone. Larger ones wait for a block: from 1,000 DOGE, 1,000,000 PEP, 2 LTC or 1,000 DGB. Tokens and collectibles always wait.
• Fees. Every trade pays the chain's network fee. An arcade may add an operator fee of up to 2%, off by default.

Running your own arcade

An arcade can run on a spare computer that stays on. Setup takes one command, and the arcade links itself to the others.

What it takes

1. A computer and Python 3.10 or newer. Linux is tested, and Windows is being tested now. macOS and ARM boards should work but aren't tested yet.
2. One install command. It downloads the coin software, checks that it's genuine, and sets everything up to run in the background. No administrator access is needed.
3. Pepecoin test on your machine. It's the only coin that must run locally. Every other coin can be borrowed from an arcade that shares it, or left off.
4. A first Pepecoin test coin. A new arcade asks the other operators for one automatically, or it can mine a test block itself.

How big a computer

These are suggested sizes, based on what working arcades use. Coin data is what grows: Dogecoin takes about 224 GB, Litecoin 255 GB and Bellscoin 411 GB.

What you can make your own

Every arcade follows the same rules for keys, coins and trades. Within those, the operator decides:

• The look: Dogecoin, Pepecoin or Litecoin colours, the arcade's name, picture and web address.
• Who it serves: how many seats (1 to 10,000, or closed), hourly limits on posts, messages and trades, and which arcades players may bring accounts from.
• Starter coins: how much test coin a new player gets, and how often it's topped up.
• Which coins: run each one, borrow it, or switch it off, and whether to share it with others.
• Fees: an operator fee on trades of 0 to 2%, and a fee on collectibles made through the arcade.
• Safety: a local AI that screens pictures and posts, and whose warnings to follow.
• AI models: offer language or picture models to players, free or paid.
• Extras: a call relay for video apps, a LoRa radio gateway, site search, and links to the operator's own sites.
• Updates: take them automatically, either the tested daily release or every change.

Some settings, like who the operator is and the remote admin password, can be changed only at the computer itself, never over the internet.

What you're responsible for

• Keeping it running and up to date. Players rely on your arcade being there, though they don't lose anything if it isn't.
• What you offer. If you open a service that holds players' coins, such as the Pepecoin main swap service, you hold them during that swap.
• Your own machine. Its security, its backups and its internet connection are yours to look after.

Staying safe

ARCADE is built so that even the arcade you sign up on can't take your coins. That protects you from a lot, but not from everything, and your own habits still matter.

What protects you

• Your wallet is locked on your device. The arcade keeps only a locked copy it can't open, and never sees your password.
• Weak passwords are refused. At least 12 characters, and the browser checks yours against lists of leaked passwords without ever sending your password.
• Real coins ask first. Before your wallet signs anything with real coins, you see a card saying what will happen. The one exception is a game returning its own creator's token or piece, in small amounts. A test coin can never be passed off as a real one.
• You sign the exact trade. A listing can only sell at the price you set, and a cross-chain swap either completes for both people or refunds both.
• Lessons from past thefts are built in. After an October 2026 theft of Doginal Dogs collectibles, the kind of signature that made it possible was banned throughout ARCADE.
• Games are fenced in. Each game runs in a sealed-off box and must ask before it touches your wallet, camera, microphone or contacts.
• Operators are protected too. Admin pages can't be reached remotely without the operator's account and a separate password, and key settings can only be changed at the machine.
• Updates are signed. An arcade installed from the project's download checks that each update really comes from the project before installing it. Checking for arcades installed with git is still to come.

What it can't protect you from

• Losing your 12 words. If you forget your password and lose the words, nobody can get your account back.
• Fake websites. A site that copies an arcade's look could ask for your words. ARCADE will only ask for them on the Restore page.
• Trusting the wrong arcade with a custodial order. If you leave a swap order for an arcade to fill while you're away, that arcade's operator holds the coins until it's done.
• Fast trades being undone. Small coin swaps act before a block confirms them, which is quick but could be reversed by a dishonest trader.
• Your own device. Malware on your computer or phone can see what you type.

Good habits

1. Write your 12 words on paper and keep them somewhere safe. Never type them anywhere except the Restore page.
2. Use a password you don't use anywhere else.
3. Read the review card before approving anything with real coins.
4. Prefer trades that need no trust, and keep custodial orders small.
5. Only turn on Wallet access for games you trust.
6. Use arcades you or your community know.

Limits today

ARCADE is young and changes week to week. These are the limits worth knowing before you start.

For players

• Lose your 12 words, lose your account. Nobody can reset your password, by design.
• The chain never forgets. Posts, names and collectibles are public and permanent. Deleting only hides them.
• Messages are private, not anonymous. Nobody else can read them, but who sent one, when, and how large it was are public. They run on a test network that could be reset.
• Some trades need trust. See the second table under Exchanging.
• Undoing a swap takes time. A failed swap between coins refunds itself within 8 hours at most. On a phone, a waiting swap moves only while the arcade is open on screen.
• Not every coin does everything. Bellscoin and Luckycoin can't swap yet.
• Seats are limited. Each public arcade takes 50 accounts by default; a seat frees up after 90 days without use.

For operators

• Big coins are big. Some chains take days to download, and Bellscoin's collectibles index needs many hours and a lot of disk.
• Borrowing means some trust. A borrowed coin's answers are checked where possible, but partly rest on the lending arcade's word.
• Linux is tested; Windows is being tested now. macOS and ARM boards should work but haven't been tried widely.
• The guides are catching up. Parts of the built-in guide trail behind the code.

Where it's headed

The team's current work is about trust you can see and an easier start for operators. These are plans, not promises, and their order may change.

• Pages you can check. Each arcade will be able to show that it serves the standard, signed pages, and arcades will spot-check each other. Players will see a badge such as "Stock, signed" or "Modified", and an arcade will only pass a player on to arcades it trusts.
• More coins, fully supported. Bellscoin and Luckycoin support is being finished, including their collectibles and, where the chains allow, swaps.
• One balance everywhere. An account used on several arcades should show the same coins on each, without a slow rescan when you move.
• A friendlier admin. The operator pages are being redesigned with feedback from current operators.
• Mining together. Ideas under study include letting operators mine test coins together and support each other's chains with their spare computing power.
• Ready-made radio kits. Handheld LoRa radios that come set up to reach an arcade with no internet.

If you'd like to help shape these, the best way in is to run an arcade or build an app for one.

Glossary